Flea Market Treasures

Going to the flea market today was not without it's rewards. For example, Sam got this little treasure...

Yes, that item above is one in the same in both photos -on the left, a hunk of wood carved to look like a nut - and on the right, when you press the button - there's a Santa inside! You can't tell by these pictures but the Santa's arms and legs wiggle, making it far more valuable that the one measly dollar that Sam paid for it. This was Sam's find of the day.

I on the other hand, bought a few more unneeded old postcards to add to my unneeded old postcard "collection"...

This is a postcard of a now long defunct restaurant called "Turnbull's. Turnbull's stood on the other side of town, over on the other side of the rotary from where I currently live. When I first moved out this way, I would pass Turnbull's every day as I commuted to and from the little hilltown where I was living.

A few short years later, it was a place frequented by Mom and Dad - and most of the other senior citizens in this neck of the woods. I think I may have had dinner there with Mom and Dad at least once. Pretty good corn relish, as I recall. If only they were still around. In a couple of more years, I could really cash in on that senior citizen's discount.

Here's a postcard of Sliding Rock, in North Carolina. Sliding Rock was one of the places we would visit during our summers with Nona and Eleanore. Though I was never insane enough to slide down the wet rock into the bottomless-pit-of-death at the end, I personally know people who have.

I've written about the Barefoot Trader before. Suffice it to say that this is another place from my distant past, which holds fond memories. The Barefoot Trader was a gift shop at Cape Cod and was one of the places we used to frequent when I was a little kid.

If you look carefully, you might notice the giant tiki head off to the right of the doorway. It looked pretty great lit up at night. What you won't notice is the abandoned house next door which, rumor had it, was populated by flying monkeys - exactly like those on The Wizard of Oz. (I should note that the only one I ever heard speak this rumor was Dad.) The postcard's a little blurry - but then, so are my memories.

This is a postcard of the Hyannis airport. Technically, the Barnstable Municipal Airport, also technically, Boardman/Polando Field. This is also at Cape Cod (as is Hyannis). I never visited this airport but I went by it many times.

What I remember most about the airport is that we used to eat at a small diner directly across the rotary from it, and at the end of our meal, Mom and Dad would enjoy a cup of coffee (allegedly). And what made the coffee so enjoyable was that they would shovel us kids out to the car while they slowly (and I mean slowly) sipped their alleged cups of coffee, leaving us kids with little to do but avoid my big brother and watch the searchlight shine on the top of the airport tower (and wish it was the bat-signal, calling Batman to save me).

Here's yet another postcard from Cape Cod. This is another place I never visited but had driven by it a number of times. There are no special memories about this place, I just like the way it looks. 

I like nighttime scenes, especially from places at Cape Cod - in part because they look kind of magical to me. This, I'm sure, is a carryover from when I was a little kid. We would go tooling around at night and everything would be lit up - and that alone made everything look great. Being able to be out and about after dark when, under normal non-vacation circumstances, I couldn't, only added to the intrigue.

I also like the idea of a motor lodge (or, if you prefer, the more impersonal "motel"). Something about it seems kind of quaint to me. But then again, I don't have to spent a lot of time in them.

According to Google Maps, this place is still there and it looks pretty much the same, thank God. The owners should get some kind of award for this.

By the way, this was the only postcard I bought today that had any message on the back...

I don't choose postcards by whether they have any writing on them or not, but I like it when they do. 

I like old postcards because each is from a particular moment in time. And I like the ones that have messages on them because it places them in an even  more specific - and personal - period in time. It's like a brief snapshot from someone's life. 

This one, for example, was written on June 30th, 1970. This particular family left Cleveland on a Saturday and drove to Albany, where they spent the night. Then they drove from Albany to Cape Cod, where they're staying for a bit playing "put-put" golf. Apparently, "Joan" and "Eileen"love "put-put" golf to the point where they each got a bad sunburn. Regardless, soon they would be off to New Jersey. 

There's more there, but you get the point.

So this was my haul from the day - five postcards. All of which, I guess, was worth the few dollars I paid. Pretty cheap for some pretty good memories.